Night Gallery - Season 2 (1 Viewer)

[chas speed]

If they can't be bothered to watch a season set they shouldn't review it. Nobody is holding a gun to their heads. Twilight Zone had many silly episodes only they weren't two minutes long like the ones on Night Gallery.

 

[Corey3rd]

The short joke sketches on Night Gallery were about the same level as the blackout players on Love American Style.

 

[chas speed]

Yes and they were just as brief. The silly episodes of Twilight Zone went on for a 1/2 hour or an hour. If you added up all the silly bits of Night Gallery it wouldn't add up to the length one silly episode of the Twilight Zone. One of the Twilight Zones had a laugh track for God's sake. It does seem strange that reviewers and people like you would obsess about a 2 minute bit on Night Gallery and totally ignore all of the silly Twilight Zone episodes. They also seem to forget that the bits on Night Gallery really only lasted for the first half of season two and can not be found on the rest of the series.

 

[Kevin EK]

I will be going through the set this weekend and submitting a review for it here. It takes a little time, and I need to check out the Hellboy-related extras and work through everything.

One positive note for me so far is that there is an acknowledgement on the packaging that they are aware there is some material missing.

I am personally a fan of Serling and of The Twilight Zone. Haven't seen much of Night Gallery. My review will be focused on the quality of the presentation and what extras are available. You guys are already quite knowledgable about the show - I'll offer an opinion if a segment looks particularly intriguing.

 

[Corey3rd]

What stopwatch are you using? The funny bits on Night Gallery average around 3-5 minutes to get to the punchline. The American Style blackout sketches went maybe 30 seconds.

Even if the episode of Twilight Zone was "silly." It didn't destroy the tone of the entire show like some of these NG stinkers. Episode 9 has that Bloodbank episode which completely takes the edge off the episode. It's hard to completely accept the tone of "Dr. Stringfellow" with Forrest Tucker since you're expecting him to go for a cheap joke like Victor did in the previous segment. It ruined the tone of the show.

While you want to somehow mock the Twilight Zone episode with the laughtrack, you don't mention that "Cavender Is Coming" was being used as a backdoor pilot in hopes that the network would pick it up as a comedy series. There was a reason it was on that episode.

 

[Harry-N]

I think a few people in this thread need to use "IMHO" a bit more. It stands for "In My Humble Opinion" and indicates that each of our views is unique and not disrespectful of other peoples' take on the same subject.

NIGHT GALLERY produced some fine stories over its three-year run, and as all series tend to do, it had its share of stinkers as well - all, of course, IMHO.

Harry

 

[chas speed]

Bottom line is that most Twilight Zone fans will overlook all the rotten episodes of the series, but want to obsess about a few stupid blackouts that were part of the 2nd season of Night Gallery. I didn't know I was supposed to forget about the laugh track episode of Twilight Zone because it was there for a reason. You simply forgot to explain the rules to me.

 

[Corey3rd]

lighten up. nobody is arguing your Master's thesis here.

it's hard to fault Laird for adding humor to the show in order to boost the numbers. Every producer has their panic moment because it's hard enough to get a show on the air and keeping it on long enough for syndication is essential. The series had a very short life with only a single complete season and two barely half seasons. But the jokes didn't add much to the show. Wasn't there a story about Serling and Laird getting heated over the comic shorts?

 

[chas speed]

Who cares. My point is you shouldn't ignore (like most reviewers) classic episodes like "Silent Snow, Secret Snow", "Green Fingers", "A Question of Fear", "Camera Obscura", "The Messiah of Mott Street", "Cool Air", "Pickman's Model" and many others because of a few stupid blackout segments. That's why God invented the chapter skip button. I haven't read one review that even mentions "Silent Snow, Secret Snow", which I think is one of the most beautiful things I've seen on television, because they are too busy writing about dumb 3 min. blackouts like 'Junior". If I wrote a review on Twilight Zone, I don't think I would obsess over the lame episodes and ignore the classics.

 

[Stephen Bowie]

The comedy vignettes are something of a straw man. The real problem for me is that when Night Gallery did have good scripts, they were usually compromised to some degree by the bland, unsubtle production design and photography that were standard for shows made on the Universal backlot at that time. The difference between "Walking Distance" and "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar" is that the latter achieves the visual poetry of a Marcus Welby episode (that's not a compliment). The Lovecraft adaptations, too, are there on the page, but not quite in the execution.

Scott Skelton & Jim Benson have been making a passionate case for Night Gallery for years now, and I wish I could share their view that it's a major success. Which is not to say that I'm not glad the show's biggest season is finally available on DVD.

 

[chas speed]

Lionel Lindon and Gerald Perry Finnerman did most of the 2nd season photography. Lionel Lindon was an Academy Award winner and Finnerman did the photography on Moonlighting and Star Trek, so I can honestly say that I don't share your view on the shows look.

 

[Corey3rd]

Where are your reviews? This is the internet where anyone can be a mini-Ebert?

Does sound like you owe us a chance to see your review of Season 2 so we know exactly what you would do and not do.

 

[HenryDuBrow]

You didn't like TTDTRB? That's a favorite of mine, Windom's superb, and I also love "Pickman's Model" and "Big Surprise".

 

[chas speed]

Why are you guys hanging around a Night Gallery thread when you can be living it up by watching "Kick the Can" for the 50th time. Enjoy!

 

[Corey3rd]

Way to completely duck the challenge. Why don't you sit down and write your review of the boxset. i'm interested in seeing your insight into this season 2 collection since it's obvious that you have opinions. And don't fall behind the "nobody's paying me to write a review" defense since 99% of all reviews of DVDs on the internet are unpaid.

step up and break it down - you can post it in this thread

 

[Michael Reuben]

Enough bickering! Anyone who has the season 2 set and would like to share his or her impressions of it is most welcome to do so. Leave the rest at home, please.

 

[michael_ks]

I finally received my copy of S2 courtesy of the DD sale and so far, I'm very pleased with this set. My congratulations to Universal for putting together an impressive collection of special feature material. I enjoyed the two major retrospectives and the promos and look forward to the audio commentaries. (Isn't it amazing how Pat Boone doesn't appear to look that much older than he did in "The Academy"?)

It's so gratifying to finally be able to see the bulk of the series finest moments, commercial-free and unedited--in many ways it's like seeing them for the first time. Visually, the episodes look quite good, they appear only to suffer somewhat in low light scenes as the contrast can be somewhat poor. I noticed that "Midnight Never Ends", for instance does not play as well visually, as something like "The Hand of Borgus Weems".

As for the vignettes, well, they're as silly as ever, but they don't bother me like they did once. I manage to find something redeeming in all of them, whether it be the music, performances, direction, set design, etc. that they really don't taint the more cerebral entries for me at all. Having watched all of disc 1, I can honestly say that I enjoyed each segment as much as I did back in the 70s, save for "The Flip Side of Satan"--Arte Johnson is so terribly miscast in that one, the pacing is poor and it features a very pedestrian script. But "Class of '99", "Boy Who Predicted Earthquakes", "The Academy" and "A Fear of Spiders"? They're comparable in caliber to "Eye of the Beholder" and "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street", from where I stand. (IMHO, naturally...)

 

[Claude North]

Does anyone know why Universal used two different packaging styles for this release? I received the set for Christmas and it consists of a cardboard box that hold a fold-out cardboard case that has those plastic trays attached to it. However, the set that I bought someone else for a Christmas gift consists of a cardboard box and three of those thin, clamshell-type cases (i.e. the same sort of packaging used for the Brady Bunch season sets).

 

[chas speed]

You should see the syndicated version of "Flip Side of Satan". They padded it out to almost twice it's length and superimposed weird faces on the screen. It is like going through a long, horrible acid trip and makes the version on the DVD seem like Citizen Kane. Thank God the altered and insane syndication versions seem gone forever.

 

[irishsooner]

first time here on this forum and rented NIGHT GALLERY 1st season and started 2nd season. also have the 2nd season on the shelf at the best buy i work at. funny that one time rod serling called NIGHT GALLERY "MANNIX in a grave". basically he had no control over the direction of the show and was just a recognizable name on the credits. thought the show was good and liked seeing actors before they became famous and famous faces at the time. production values are what you would expect from the time after watching other tv shows from the period. was nice watching this show for the first time since i was a kid in the early 70's.